Asking well · for marketers
Asking well in marketing
Most weak marketing output comes from weak instructions. "Write a LinkedIn post about our new feature" leaves the model to guess the audience, the angle, the length, and the call to action. It guesses the average, and the average reads like every other post in the feed.
Asking well means putting the decisions a good copywriter would ask about into the request itself. Who is this for? What should they do after reading? What format does the channel reward? What must the copy avoid?
Where it comes up
Subject-line variants for a win-back email
You need ten subject lines for customers who canceled in the last 90 days. A strong request names the segment, the offer, the character limit your email platform truncates at, and the tone to avoid, such as guilt or false urgency.
A product page section from release notes
Engineering shipped a feature and wrote release notes for developers. You need a 120-word section for buyers. The request must say who the buyer is, which benefit leads, and which technical terms to drop.
Ad copy across three placements
One message, three formats: a search ad, a short social caption, and a display banner line. A good request asks for all three at once, with each placement’s limits stated, so the message stays consistent.
What it looks like at each band
E1 · Foundational
Gets usable drafts when the task is familiar and the request is simple. Requests usually name the topic and the format but leave out the audience and the goal. Fixes come by editing the output by hand rather than by improving the request.
E2 · Proficient
Writes requests that state the audience, the goal, the channel, and the length. Asks for several options instead of one. When the first draft misses, rewrites the request with what was missing rather than starting over with a new vague one.
E3 · Distinguished
Breaks a larger job into a sequence of requests: angles first, then a chosen angle drafted, then variants. Specifies what the copy must not do, such as unsupported claims or competitor names. Uses the model to question the brief before drafting from it.
E4 · Exceptional
Writes reusable request templates the team uses for recurring work, with fields for segment, offer, and constraints. Knows which tasks need one precise request and which need a short back-and-forth. Teammates get better results by copying how this person asks.
Common mistakes
Asking for "engaging" or "compelling"
These words tell the model nothing it can act on. Name the effect you want instead, such as a reply, a click to pricing, or a forward to a manager.
One output when you need a choice
Asking for one headline gets you the most average headline. Ask for eight with different angles, then pick and refine.
Leaving out the channel limits
Character limits, preview text, and platform norms change what good copy is. If the request does not state them, you will cut the copy down yourself afterward.
A worked example
A launch email for a new reporting feature in a B2B analytics product.
Write an email announcing our new reporting feature. Make it engaging.
The model does not know who receives the email, what the feature does for them, or what they should do next. The result will be a generic announcement with an invented benefit list.
Write a launch email for existing customers on our Team plan who use dashboards weekly. The new feature lets them schedule a dashboard as a PDF to stakeholders. Lead with the time it saves on Monday reporting. Under 150 words. One call to action: "Set up a schedule." No exclamation marks, and no claims about time saved in hours, since we have no data for that. Give me three versions with different opening lines.
The request names the segment, the benefit to lead with, the length, the single action, and a factual limit. Asking for three openings gives a real choice.
The full study guide for this skill, for every role, is Asking well. The other five skills for marketers are on the AI skills for marketers page. A one-page summary is in the AI prompt checklist.
See where you stand
The free check grades asking well and the other five skills in about fifteen minutes. Nobody sees the grade but you.
Then build the skills and prove it. The three steps for marketers list the courses and templates that fit the work.